For Mondays Class of USHAP I was wondering how every body felt about the material. For me, I felt like we had already gone over this previously on Friday and it was a good review of what we have learned so far. That being said, I feel like the extra practice might mean that this will be very important. On another note, I was feeling that one question could be on all of our minds. Why is the Confederacy holding up so well against the great behemoth the Union? And for me it came down to three 3 advantages that the Confederacy had early on.
1. Morale: The spirit of the war effort was drawn on by the rally for rights and the freedom to be independent. This is much stronger of a rally call in comparison to the Unions, "for the Union".
2. Military Dominance: the South had a key military dominance in the beginning of the war. General Lee was a Legendary tactician and would be ready to lead in the heat of battle. McClellan is overly cautious and the South capitalized on their mistakes
3. On Defense:All the south must do to win is to break the will of the north to fight. The soldiers are fighting for the defense of their home land, which ties back to point 1.
But what are some of your guys' ideas on the topic?
Good summary of advantages, Dean. I think another important fact was that because the North wanted the South to rejoin them at the war's conclusion, they could not "smash" them in the same way they could a foreign nation. The North was in the precarious situation of having to beat their enemy, but not so badly that their relationship with them was permanently ruined. Take a look at this source, which states that the North only really began a campaign of "total destruction" in 1864: http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/william-t-sherman.html.
ReplyDeleteThe South also enjoyed the advantage of its own expanse. This was particularly felt in the success of the blockade runners in that the North simply did not have the navy to blockade the entire coast.
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